Taipa and Coloane Community Service Consultative Council member Leong Chon Kit yesterday quoted power utility CEM representatives as saying that the total number of public charging stations for electric vehicles will increase from 495 to 2,000 by the end of this year, adding that the charging points are mainly in the city’s public car parks run by the Transport Bureau (DSAT) and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM).
Leong made the remarks during a press briefing after the government-appointed council’s regular closed-door meeting with CEM representatives at the Seac Pai Van Community Integrated Building in Coloane yesterday.
Leong noted that most of the 2,000 charging stations will be slow charging, adding that most vehicle owners had switched to slow charging since charging for electric vehicles came into effect in July, which has exceeded demand for fast charging.
According to the representative, the Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) has recently issued guidelines on applications for charging stations in private car parks, Leong said, noting that as of Sunday, CEM had received 208 applications, of which 155 had already installed electricity meters at their respective car parks.
Leong pointed out that among the 495 existing charging stations, 74 percent were installed in the Macau peninsula, while Taipa and Coloane accounted for 17 percent and 9 percent respectively.
Meanwhile, about the programme which was launched by CEM at the end of 2020 to upgrade the communal electrical installations in “three-nil” buildings by providing a total of 30 million patacas in subsidies, Lam Ka Chun, the council’s deputy convener, quoted yesterday the representatives as saying that CEM had received applications from 734 “three nil” buildings of less than seven storeys aged over 30 years, of which 24 had been upgraded and 25 buildings had been approved for construction, with a participation rate of 11.4 percent of such buildings, involving 1,913 households.
The term “Three nil” buildings refers to those which don’t have an owners corporation (OC), no tenants’ organisation, and no property management company (PMC).
Hengqin checkpoint logs 7.38 million border crossings
Meanwhile, fellow council member Lo Chung Yee noted that the number of border crossings between Macau and the mainland through Hengqin checkpoint has reached 7.38 million in the past two years, while the number of vehicles has exceeded 1.04 million, including 700,000 Macau vehicles with a single licence plate, causing serious traffic congestion at the checkpoint.
In view of the continuous increase in the number of vehicles entering and exiting Macau and the mainland via Hengqin checkpoint, Lo urged the government to consider adding extra customs and immigration clearance channels at the checkpoint, as well as adding an electronic screen on the main road before the final junction at Lotus Bridge, and reopening two lanes on the bridge in each direction.
Lo also urged the government to coordinate with mainland law enforcement officers in directing the traffic at the checkpoint during peak hours and assisting in the vehicles’ customs clearance.
Deputy convener of the Taipa and Coloane Community Service Consultative Council Lam Ka Chun (right) and Leong Chon Kit, a member of the government-appointed council, pose after a regular closed-door meeting of the council at the Seac Pai Van Community Integrated Building in Coloane yesterday. – Photo: Yuki Lei
